Curated collection
When the pilots saved the plane
Four documentaries about crews who kept a failing airliner flying long enough to land it. They cover two fuel emergencies, a jammed elevator and a fuselage torn open in flight, and the investigations that followed. Everyone on the first three flights survived, and 94 of the 95 people on Aloha Flight 243 lived.
Start collection Browse the videos
The collection includes the Aloha Flight 243 accident, in which flight attendant C.B. Lansing lost her life.
The viewing path
A suggested order, not a chronological timeline.
4 videos
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1983Air Canada Flight 143
Pearson’s Sideslip Landing at Gimli
Out of fuel at 41,000 feet: Captain Pearson sideslips a powerless 767 onto a drag strip at Gimli.
Why it belongs
Start with the best-known glide landing: a 767 that ran out of fuel because its load was worked out in pounds instead of kilograms.
Play: Air Canada Flight 143: Pearson’s Sideslip Landing at Gimli Read & explore: Air Canada Flight 143: Pearson’s Sideslip Landing at Gimli
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2001Air Transat Flight 236
Fuel Leak, Glide and Lajes Landing
Both engines stop over the Atlantic, and the A330 glides to Lajes in the Azores.
Why it belongs
A second fuel emergency, this time a leak over the open Atlantic, gives a useful comparison with Gimli.
Play: Air Transat Flight 236: Fuel Leak, Glide and Lajes Landing Read & explore: Air Transat Flight 236: Fuel Leak, Glide and Lajes Landing
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1977Delta Air Lines Flight 1080
Flying an L-1011 With a Jammed Left Elevator
A TriStar with a jammed elevator, flown for almost an hour with engine thrust alone.
Why it belongs
The collection moves from loss of power to a flight-control emergency, where every engine still ran but the elevator would not move.
Play: Delta Flight 1080: Flying an L-1011 With a Jammed Left Elevator Read & explore: Delta Flight 1080: Flying an L-1011 With a Jammed Left Elevator
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1988Aloha Airlines Flight 243
Landing a 737 With Its Roof Torn Away
Thirteen minutes from the decompression to a landing at Kahului, with no nose gear light.
Why it belongs
It ends with the hardest of the four, a 737 landed on Maui with part of its roof gone, on a flight where C.B. Lansing did not survive.
Play: Aloha Airlines Flight 243: Landing a 737 With Its Roof Torn Away Read & explore: Aloha Airlines Flight 243: Landing a 737 With Its Roof Torn Away
About this collection
Most crash stories are about what went wrong. These four are about what the crews did after it had. In 1983 an Air Canada Boeing 767 ran out of fuel at 41,000 feet over northern Ontario and was glided down to a disused air force runway at Gimli, Manitoba. In 2001 an Air Transat Airbus A330 lost its fuel through a leak over the Atlantic and glided to Lajes in the Azores with both engines stopped. In 1977 a Delta L-1011 left San Diego with a jammed elevator and was flown to Los Angeles on engine thrust. In 1988 an Aloha Airlines 737 lost part of its roof over Hawaii and was landed on Maui 13 minutes later.
Everyone on board the first three flights survived. On the Aloha flight, flight attendant C.B. Lansing was swept out of the aircraft, and the other 94 people lived. Each story also has a cause on the other side: a fuel load worked out in pounds instead of kilograms, a mismatched part fitted during an engine change, a corroded bearing, and fatigue cracks that inspections missed. The videos start in the cockpit and then turn to what the investigators found.